CARNIVORA. 
21 
haps with the intention of making a spring. There 
was no longer any time to think. I called softly to the 
mother not to be alarmed ; and, invoking the name 
of the Lord, fired my piece. The ball passed directly 
over the hair of my boy’s head, and lodged in the 
forehead of the lion, immediately above his eyes, 
which shot forth, as it were, sparks of fire, and 
stretched him on the ground, so that he never stirred 
more.” 
In that most affecting account, which Mr. Mungo 
Park gives of his last and fatal journey to the in- 
terior of Africa, will be found another instance of 
that sort of deliberation in the lion, which cha- 
racterises him in the day, and sometimes gives time 
to men, when exposed to this animal, to anticipate 
its purpose, by destroying or escaping from it. — “ We 
had not proceeded above a mile, before we heard on 
our left a noise, very much like the barking of a large 
mastiff, but ending in a hiss like the fuf of a cat. I 
thought it must be some large monkey, and was ob- 
serving to Mr. Anderson, ‘ what a bouncing fellow 
that must be,’ when we heard another bark nearer 
to us, and presently a third still nearer, accompanied 
with a growl. I now suspected, that some wild ani- 
mal meant to attack us, but could not conjecture of 
what species it was likely to be. We had not pro- 
ceeded a hundred yards farther, when, coming to an 
opening in the bushes, I was not a little surprised to 
see three lions coming toward us. They were not 
so red as the lion I formerly saw in Bambara, but of 
a dusky colour, like the colour of an ass. They were 
